Chapter 2
Maggie stood at the edge of the crowd that was milling through the park. There was a line of food trucks parked along the curb, so their dinner options were vast and delicious.
But would he be here? She glanced at the time on her phone again. It was two minutes until six o’clock. “Stop panicking, Maggs,” she whispered to herself. However, her luck with men had been pretty miserable. Even her father was a ham-fisted jerk.
So, when she saw a tall, dark-haired man striding down the sidewalk, Maggie felt as if her heart might just float away. He was here! Wow! The man had actually shown up!
“You thought I wouldn’t come,” Ramit observed in a deep, husky voice as soon as he was within earshot.
“I had my doubts,” she admitted, hoping that the heat in her cheeks didn’t show. “In my experience, men aren’t necessarily reliable.”
“In what way?” he asked, taking her hand and tucking it onto his elbow as he started walking.
She snorted. “In every way.” She indicated her favorite food truck. “I know the chef that works that food truck. He has the most amazing tacos. The shrimp tacos are marinated in his own special chili lime sauce, which is incredibly delicious.”
Ramit looked in that direction, then nodded approvingly. “Shrimp tacos it is. And while we eat, you can explain how the men in your past have let you down.”
She smiled, but inside, her heart pounded dangerously at the concern in his eyes. Maggie silently reminded herself to calm down. Men were liars and cheaters and, often, worse. If she hadn’t experienced so many men lying and cheating on her, not to mention smacking her around whenever they had a bad day, then her job gave her ample evidence of men’s true intentions.
They ordered their shrimp tacos and she noticed Ramit eyeing the paper “bowl” suspiciously.
“I brought a blanket,” she explained, smothering her laughter as she hefted her backpack higher on her shoulder. “Why don’t we head out to the park to eat?”
Ramit dubious expression indicated that he didn’t think that the idea was good, but he nodded. “A picnic it is,” he finally replied, then grabbed the bag filled with chips and guacamole while she carried their drinks.
Once she found her favorite spot, she set the food down on the ground and spread out the blanket. “How’s this?” she asked, looking up at him hopefully.
“Perfect,” he replied, then waited until she sat down before taking a seat next to her.
“Okay, I know that your doubtful about the food, so be prepared to apologize for your misgivings,” she warned, popping a corn chip into her mouth.
He chuckled and the sound warmed her. He wore jeans and a soft-looking sweater tonight. If she hadn’t noticed his hesitation about the price of food at the museum earlier today, she might suspect that his sweater was cashmere. But since she knew that he wasn’t wealthy, the sweater was probably made from a cheaper acrylic yarn that only looked like more expensive cashmere.
“So, will you tell me about yourself?” she asked, then took a bite of the shrimp taco. “Oh, this is so good!”
Ramit watched, fascinated with Maggie. She hadn’t let him pay for their meal. Again! He didn’t understand her insistence on paying for everything, but he found it charming. Was this another trick? A new way to get him to lower his guard so that he would offer her everything?
Because he wanted to. She was so lively and beautiful. But there was a caution in her eyes. Another mystery, he thought. His guards had done a quick background check on her. He’d only listened to the assurance that Maggie was safe, with no criminal history. The rest, he wanted to learn on his own by talking to her.
“I think you should tell me more about yourself first,” he replied, then tentatively bit into his food. He didn’t believe that good food could come from a truck, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings by not eating the dinner she’d so sweetly provided for them.
But as soon as he bit into the taco, he pulled back, staring down at the food. “Wow!” he muttered, chewing and trying to understand the wash of delicious flavors. “This is amazing.”
She laughed and he looked at her, charmed by the melodic sound.
“You’ve never eaten anything from a food truck, have you?”
“Never,” he replied staring down at the curious food as if he needed to make sense of it. But then he shrugged and brought the taco to his mouth for another bite. “This is shockingly good.” He even glanced over his shoulder at the line of food trucks speculatively. “Are all the meals this interesting?”
Maggie nodded. “Most food trucks are really good. Some aren’t so interesting. A lot serve decadent foods that aren’t unique, just run of the mill fried foods or inventive desserts, but I haven’t run into a bad food truck yet.” She took another bite, then lifted her hand. Quickly, she swallowed, then said, “I take that back. I avoid the trucks that sell steak and cheese sandwiches. In my experience, the meat is always ridiculously overcooked, the runny cheese is skimpy, and the thick slab of bread usually overwhelms everything else.” She shrugged and examined her taco to figure out the best bite. “Just my opinion though.”
Ramit nodded as he took another bite. “Noted,” he finally replied. “Avoid the steak and cheese trucks. What else?”
She wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. “The desserts are usually to die for. There’s a truck that sells a warmed brownie that’s covered with ice cream, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, then chocolate sprinkles.”
Ramit stared at her for a moment, his taco frozen in place. Then his head swiveled towards the line of trucks. “Which one provides this dessert?” he demanded, his tone grimly determined.
She laughed and pointed towards the end of the line of boxy trucks. “It’s over there. I’ll get one for us when we finish with the tacos.”
Ramit relaxed at that news, but there was no chance he was going to allow her to purchase the dessert. She’d already bought him two meals. That was the limit of his ability to step back and let someone else pay. Especially a woman.
Yes, he was aware of his sexist tendencies. He didn’t care. He treated women with respect, and that included paying for their meals.
They finished off their tacos and it took a great deal of self-discipline to not jump up and get another order. The shrimp had been spicy, but the sauce covering the cabbage and salsa had somehow been creamy. And overall, the lime flavors came through, adding a bit of zip to the whole experience.
“You don’t like guacamole?” she asked, nudging the container of the green stuff closer.
“I’d prefer to get that dessert,” he told her. “Stay here.”
Then he was up and walking towards the truck she’d indicated earlier.
“Your Highness,” his guard called to him as he headed for the food truck. “Asti is calling for you.” Asti was the liaison for the problem he was trying to eliminate.
Ramit scowled, but didn’t slow his pace. He wanted to get back to Maggie as soon as possible, but he was never completely free of his responsibilities. It annoyed him sometimes, such as now, but knew it was a pointless reaction. It wouldn’t make the problems go away and leave him time to get to know Maggie better. Impatiently, he frowned at the proffered cell phone, not wanting to touch it. Accepting this call could mean the end to his time with Maggie. Still, he couldn’t avoid the problem forever. “Does Asti have new information?”
“I believe he does, Your Highness.”
The guard handed him the phone. With a sigh of resignation, Ramit took it, trying to tamp down on his frustration. “What?” he snapped. “Have you discovered anything new?”
“Your Highness, the men have asked for a meeting. They called five minutes ago.”
Ramit looked around, but didn’t see the other diners strolling along the sidewalk or the park area. “Where? And when?”
“They agreed to meet you at TBC at eight-thirty on Friday night. They will explain their demands at that meeting.” TBC was known to the membership as “The Billionaires Club”, but Ramit knew the owners, Levi Harris, Sean Byrne, and Matteo del Campo. They were good men, but they were all illegitimate. Ramit suspected that the true name of the club was “The Bastards Club”, a sort of snub to the previous owner’s hypocrisy. Levi Harris had inherited the place from his father. It had been a final slap in the face from the wealthy man who had left Levi to the untrustworthy whims of poverty while ensuring that his two legitimate sons received every possible advantage.
The irony there was that Levi was now wealthier than his father had ever been, while the legitimate sons were barely able to keep their remaining sporting goods stores open.
News of another day’s delay caused him to clench his jaw. “They got me to Philadelphia just so that I could meet them, now they want to wait two more days?” he growled.
“That’s all the information I have, Your Highness.” Asti hesitated. “If you could tell me why this meeting is so important, Your Highness, I might be of more help.”
Ramit ran a hand through his hair, furious that he was this situation. If his sister hadn’t…! But she had. And now, he had to clean up the mess!
“Your Highness?” Asti prompted again.
Ramit growled. “This is a personal matter. I will handle this, but I appreciate your offer of assistance.”
The man said something more, but Ramit was too angry at being manipulated to listen. He ended the call and returned the phone to his bodyguard. “Tomorrow night at eight thirty at the TBC club.”
“Your friends own that place, correct?”
Ramit nodded grimly. “Yes, and I’ll have to apologize to them for putting their establishment into the middle of this mess!” He looked around, spotting his other guards. Two of them had gone up to the dessert truck while he’d been on the phone.
Apparently, a large number of other people meandering around the park had also decided to get dessert, so the line was relatively long. Thankfully, everyone’s order was efficiently taken by the food truck operators and prepared quickly, so it wasn’t long before his bodyguard took possession of several dessert bowls.
Even as he watched, Ramit’s mouth watered as he stared down at the enormous desserts.
“I didn’t know which she’d prefer, so I got an assortment,” the guard explained.
Ramit nodded his approval, then picked up a strawberry shortcake dessert and the brownie. “These will work. Thank you.” Then he turned and headed back to Maggie.
His irritation over his prime minister’s incompetence disappeared as soon as he sat down on the blanket next to Maggie. There was something soothing about her presence.
Correction, her soothing manner helped ease his temper. But Ramit didn’t consider her to be soothing. Not when he wanted to reach out and pull her into his arms, kiss her until neither of them knew what day it was.
As his body tightened at the images flashing through his mind, Ramit forced himself to think of something less salacious. If he didn’t gain control, it would be embarrassingly obvious what he was thinking. And Ramit didn’t want to scare Maggie away.
“Which would you prefer?” he asked, showing her the dessert options.
“Wow!” she laughed, pulling back slightly as she stared in awe at the strawberry and chocolate options. “How about if we share them both?”
Ramit had never shared food with someone before. It was such an outrageous idea, he hesitated for a long moment. When she looked embarrassed, he shook his head. “I think that’s a perfect solution,” he admitted. And he was stunned that it was the truth. He really did want to share this experience with her. Hell, he wanted to drizzle chocolate and strawberry syrup all over her body and enjoy her as his dessert.
Later, he vowed, not allowing his eyes to move over her curvy figure. And whipped cream! The decadent thought popped into his head before he could stop it.
“Oh, this is wonderful!” she whispered, licking the spoon after taking a bite of the brownie. “I love that they warm the brownies.”
Ramit had to admit that he was more focused on her tongue as it licked the last bit of whipped cream off her lip. But he forced his eyes to look away. It took a great deal of concentration to maneuver a bite of the chocolate brownie, ice cream, syrup, and whipped cream onto his spoon, but his reward was a mouthful of chocolate decadence.
Nodding approvingly as he relished the indulgence of the chocolate brownie dessert, he smiled. "That's fantastic!" he declared, gesturing toward the chocolate decadence. He repeated the gesture for the strawberry creation, finding it equally delightful.
“Oh wow!” she sighed, closing her eyes and tilting her head backwards.
Ramit’s thoughts instantly went to her neck and how much he wanted to tease that soft, delicate skin, to discover all of the places on that neck that would cause her to sigh and moan.
Instead, he looked down and took another bite of chocolate. “We need some brandy with this,” he thought out loud.
She laughed. “I’m not a brandy fan.”
“You just haven’t had really good brandy,” he countered. “Next time we dine together, I will ensure that you can experience an excellent brandy.”
He watched her stunned expression, then smiled at the soft blush that stole up her cheeks.
“That would be…nice,” she finally muttered, then took another bite of the strawberry concoction.
For the next two hours, Ramit asked Maggie questions and she learned more about him. They walked along the riverfront, laughing at the kids playing nearby and talking about anything and everything. It was one of the most delightful dates Maggie had ever had.
When it was over, Ramit walked her to her car. She looked up at him, having a terrible foreboding that she wasn’t ever going to see him again.
“Thank you for meeting me tonight,” she whispered, her eyes moving from his dark eyes to his lips. Was he going to kiss her? Maggie normally pulled back when a man wanted to kiss on a first date. It was silly, but she needed to know a man more than just a few hours before she kissed him.
But Ramit was…different. There had been that one moment of concern when he’d asked where she lived earlier today, but ever since then, he’d been nothing but gentle and respectful. And funny, insightful, and…just delightful to be with!
So when Ramit lowered his head and brushed his lips against hers, Maggie eagerly lifted her face to accept the kiss. It was so sweet and wonderful, she couldn’t hold back the sigh.
Unfortunately, he pulled back, shoving his hands into his pockets. “This isn’t over, Maggie,” he told her with a husky, gruff voice. “I want to see you again.”
“I’d like that very much as well.”
“I have meetings tomorrow. But, will you have dinner with me again, soon?”
“Absolutely!” she replied with a laugh.
“Good. I’ll call you.” He opened the driver’s side door and waited until she was settled in the car. After closing the door, Ramit stepped back, watching as she drove away, his body aching to call her back. But there was something…wounded about Maggie. He had to take things slowly with her. She was beautiful, but someone had hurt her. Badly. He could see the truth in the wariness of her gaze and the cautious way she allowed him to touch her.
Soon, he vowed. Soon, he would gain her trust.